EP0859507A3 - Multilevel screening for color laser printer - Google Patents

Multilevel screening for color laser printer Download PDF

Info

Publication number
EP0859507A3
EP0859507A3 EP97310226A EP97310226A EP0859507A3 EP 0859507 A3 EP0859507 A3 EP 0859507A3 EP 97310226 A EP97310226 A EP 97310226A EP 97310226 A EP97310226 A EP 97310226A EP 0859507 A3 EP0859507 A3 EP 0859507A3
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
font
printer
values
pixel
cell
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Granted
Application number
EP97310226A
Other languages
German (de)
French (fr)
Other versions
EP0859507A2 (en
EP0859507B1 (en
Inventor
designation of the inventor has not yet been filed The
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Seiko Epson Corp
Original Assignee
Seiko Epson Corp
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Seiko Epson Corp filed Critical Seiko Epson Corp
Publication of EP0859507A2 publication Critical patent/EP0859507A2/en
Publication of EP0859507A3 publication Critical patent/EP0859507A3/en
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of EP0859507B1 publication Critical patent/EP0859507B1/en
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical
Expired - Lifetime legal-status Critical Current

Links

Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N1/00—Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission; Details thereof
    • H04N1/40—Picture signal circuits
    • H04N1/405—Halftoning, i.e. converting the picture signal of a continuous-tone original into a corresponding signal showing only two levels
    • H04N1/4055—Halftoning, i.e. converting the picture signal of a continuous-tone original into a corresponding signal showing only two levels producing a clustered dots or a size modulated halftone pattern
    • H04N1/4057—Halftoning, i.e. converting the picture signal of a continuous-tone original into a corresponding signal showing only two levels producing a clustered dots or a size modulated halftone pattern the pattern being a mixture of differently sized sub-patterns, e.g. spots having only a few different diameters
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N1/00—Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission; Details thereof
    • H04N1/40—Picture signal circuits
    • H04N1/40087—Multi-toning, i.e. converting a continuous-tone signal for reproduction with more than two discrete brightnesses or optical densities, e.g. dots of grey and black inks on white paper

Landscapes

  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Multimedia (AREA)
  • Signal Processing (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Discrete Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Facsimile Image Signal Circuits (AREA)
  • Color, Gradation (AREA)
  • Laser Beam Printer (AREA)
  • Image Processing (AREA)

Abstract

Tone reproduction of an image is improved by the use of error diffusion or dithering in the mapping of input pixel values on an input values scale to printer pixel values on a printer values scale, where the input values scale and the printer values scale both have more than two levels, to generate an image where a spatial average of printer values approximates a spatial average of the corresponding input values, as measured on the printer values scale. To improve the tone reproduction of reduced-resolution images, the printer pixel values are grouped into multi-pixel cells, printer pixel values within each cell are mapped to a font index value, and a font cell corresponding to the index level is printed at the location of the cell. The font set is chosen such that differences in total deposited ink between consecutive font cells is minimized. In the font cell having a font index value of zero all printer pixel values are zero, in the font cell having a font index value of one all printer pixel values are zero except for a single pixel having an isolated-single-pixel cutoff value, and as the font index value of subsequent font cells is incremented a printer pixel value is incremented such that all printer pixel values are zero except for pixels in a line along the scan direction. The final font cell consists of a line of pixels along the scan direction having a full-cell-width printer pixel value, and pixels of zero value elsewhere. The dynamic range of the font set is extended by a linear remapping of font index values.
EP97310226A 1996-12-18 1997-12-17 Multilevel screening for color laser printer Expired - Lifetime EP0859507B1 (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (4)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US3255196P 1996-12-18 1996-12-18
US32551 1996-12-18
US08/938,927 US6097502A (en) 1996-12-18 1997-10-02 Multilevel screening for color laser printer
US938927 1997-10-02

Publications (3)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0859507A2 EP0859507A2 (en) 1998-08-19
EP0859507A3 true EP0859507A3 (en) 2001-03-07
EP0859507B1 EP0859507B1 (en) 2007-05-09

Family

ID=26708591

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP97310226A Expired - Lifetime EP0859507B1 (en) 1996-12-18 1997-12-17 Multilevel screening for color laser printer

Country Status (4)

Country Link
US (2) US6097502A (en)
EP (1) EP0859507B1 (en)
JP (1) JP3775457B2 (en)
DE (1) DE69737710T8 (en)

Families Citing this family (10)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
JPH11146203A (en) * 1997-11-13 1999-05-28 Namco Ltd Image processor and storage medium storing program about device
US6407825B1 (en) * 1998-12-17 2002-06-18 Eastman Kodak Company Colorant reduction method for digital images
EP1237354B1 (en) 2001-03-01 2013-08-14 Epple Druckfarben AG Print reproduction method
US6765695B2 (en) 2001-09-12 2004-07-20 Seiko Epson Corporation Color processing architecture and algorithms for color laser printers
EP1568210A1 (en) * 2002-11-25 2005-08-31 Agfa-Gevaert Method for generating non-printing dots in a screened representation of an image
US8223393B2 (en) * 2003-03-31 2012-07-17 Eastman Kodak Company Post rip image rendering for microprinting
US7710604B2 (en) 2004-03-11 2010-05-04 Infoprint Solutions Company, Llc Method and system for providing a high quality halftoned image
JP6287294B2 (en) * 2013-03-15 2018-03-07 株式会社リコー Image inspection apparatus, image inspection system, and image inspection method
JP6448345B2 (en) * 2014-12-16 2019-01-09 キヤノン株式会社 Image processing device
JP6770828B2 (en) * 2016-05-19 2020-10-21 オリンパス株式会社 microscope

Citations (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
FR2007849A1 (en) * 1968-05-04 1970-01-16 Hell Rudolf
US4578714A (en) * 1981-03-30 1986-03-25 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Halftone image recording apparatus
US4680645A (en) * 1986-08-25 1987-07-14 Hewlett-Packard Company Method for rendering gray scale images with variable dot sizes
EP0341984A2 (en) * 1988-05-11 1989-11-15 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Image processing method and apparatus

Family Cites Families (13)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
DE3688715T3 (en) * 1985-03-30 1999-05-06 Hitachi Ltd Scanning record type printing method and its realization device.
JPS6367073A (en) * 1986-09-08 1988-03-25 Canon Inc Laser light modulating system
JP2774521B2 (en) * 1988-09-14 1998-07-09 キヤノン株式会社 Laser recording device
US4916545A (en) * 1988-11-16 1990-04-10 Eastman Kodak Company Electronic graphic arts screener that suppresses Moire patterns using pseudo-random font selection
US5353387A (en) * 1990-09-10 1994-10-04 Mannesmann Aktiengesellschaft Process for reducing the quantity of ink applied to recording substrates by ink printing devices to prevent image degradation
US5469268A (en) * 1991-02-22 1995-11-21 At&T Corp. Display model-based error criterion halftoning
US5493324A (en) * 1992-07-03 1996-02-20 Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha Image forming apparatus
US5463720A (en) * 1992-09-28 1995-10-31 Granger; Edward M. Blue noise based technique for use in a halftone tile oriented screener for masking screener induced image artifacts
US5495278A (en) * 1993-01-15 1996-02-27 Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. Image forming apparatus including a pulse width modulator
US5568572A (en) * 1994-07-01 1996-10-22 Seiko Epson Corporation Method and apparatus for tonal correction in binary printing devices by predistortion of image data
US5633729A (en) * 1994-12-22 1997-05-27 Eastman Kodak Company Processes for minimizing the quantization error in multi-level halftone transfer functions
US5745260A (en) * 1995-12-20 1998-04-28 Eastman Kodak Company Coarse/fine fonts
US5809213A (en) * 1996-02-23 1998-09-15 Seiko Epson Corporation Automatic color calibration of a color reproduction system

Patent Citations (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
FR2007849A1 (en) * 1968-05-04 1970-01-16 Hell Rudolf
US4578714A (en) * 1981-03-30 1986-03-25 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Halftone image recording apparatus
US4680645A (en) * 1986-08-25 1987-07-14 Hewlett-Packard Company Method for rendering gray scale images with variable dot sizes
EP0341984A2 (en) * 1988-05-11 1989-11-15 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Image processing method and apparatus

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
DE69737710T8 (en) 2008-07-03
DE69737710T2 (en) 2008-01-31
JP3775457B2 (en) 2006-05-17
JPH10278348A (en) 1998-10-20
US6097502A (en) 2000-08-01
EP0859507A2 (en) 1998-08-19
EP0859507B1 (en) 2007-05-09
DE69737710D1 (en) 2007-06-21
US6185008B1 (en) 2001-02-06

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